NASA released a stunning photo showing the appearance of the Moon’s south pole, the landing site for the Artemis 3 mission. Photo/NASA/Space
FLORIDA – NASA released a stunning photo showing the appearance of the Moon’s south pole, the landing site for the Artemis 3 mission. This photo was captured using two different NASA cameras while orbiting Moon .
This striking image of the moon’s south polar region was compiled from a series of photos taken by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC). This is a network of cameras installed on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter which has been circling the moon since June 2009.
Including ShadowCam, a NASA-funded instrument on the Korea Aerospace Research Institute’s Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter (KPLO). “ShadowCam is 200 times more sensitive to light than NASA’s previously used lunar camera,” NASA said as quoted by SINDOnews from the Space page, Wednesday (20/9/2023).
National Geographic, in coordination with NASA, shared a never-before-seen composite image of the moon’s south pole. This high-resolution photo is accompanied by a detailed accompanying map of the potential Artemis 3 landing site.
Here’s the official photo description according to NASA and NatGeo: “Cloaked in permanent darkness, the interior of Shackleton crater near the moon’s south pole is revealed in this stunning mosaic. Parts of three of the 13 potential landing areas for astronauts during Artemis 3 can be seen in this image.”
Along with the mosaic image of Shackleton Crater, National Geographic released a topographic map of the moon’s south pole showing potential Artemis 3 landing sites in the region. It seems all eyes are on the Moon, Earth’s only natural satellite, especially with India’s historic Chandrayaan-3 lunar south pole mission.
On August 23, 2023, India became the first country to land a spacecraft near the moon’s south pole in a USD 77 million mission. This success makes the Indian space program the fourth in history to carry out a soft landing on the Moon after the United States, the former Soviet Union and China.
Also read; Pragyan Rover of the Chandrayaan-3 Mission Finds Sulfur at the South Pole of the Moon
After a two-week mission exploring the surrounding area and conducting experiments, the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover went into sleep mode at sunset. It is hoped that these two robots can be reawakened on September 22.
Meanwhile, Russia’s latest attempt to reach the lunar south pole, the Luna-25 mission, ended in failure when its lander crashed onto the lunar surface. China and the United States want to send human crews to the moon’s south pole in 2023 and 2025.
(wib)
2023-09-20 00:32:15
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